Marble Rally 2019 - Race 5
The fifth race of the 2019 Marble Rally was held on December 7, 2019. The conditions were 3/5. Red Number 3 won the race by 8.07 seconds, improving the record for biggest winning margin by 3 seconds. Race Report At the start, Red Number 3 got away well from the front row and immediately slotted into the lead ahead of Reflektor, Crazy Cat's Eye, Superball and Quicksilver. Crazy Cat's Eye quickly passed Reflektor for second, and rookie Cool Moody went around Quicksilver to settle into fifth. Some ten seconds in, Red Number 3 had already pulled out a major gap on the remainder of the field and it would only grow as the race progressed. Through the esses, seventh-place El Capitan hounded Quicksilver before seizing his chance to fly past Quicksilver and Cool Moody simultaneously at the end of that section. What followed was a split which as usual mixed up the field. Reflektor retook second just before the split and took the lower line followed by Superball, Cool Moody and Quicksilver among others. Crazy Cat's Eye and El Capitan led the charge to the higher line. Because of a switch-over, the higher line ended up being the lower and vice versa. After the split ended, the field bunched up; with Crazy Cat's Eye briefly shooting up to second before losing out to Reflektor and Superball. Cool Moody was back in fifth, ahead of El Capitan and Quicksilver. The rookie made his move shortly, flying past Crazy Cat's Eye and then Superball moments later. A bump from Cool Moody cost Crazy Cat's Eye momentum, resulting in him getting under attack from El Capitan and Quicksilver behind. He held position, but Quicksilver got around El Capitan. It was now Pollo Loco's turn to seize his chance as he overtook Quicksilver and El Capitan, with El Capitan also dropping behind Blizzard Blaster in the process. Nearly simultaneously, Cool Moody took second from Reflektor and Crazy Cat's Eye moved ahead of Superball for fourth. After a brief exchange with Blizzard Blaster, Quicksilver went on to barge past Pollo Loco, Superball and Crazy Cat's Eye to move up from seventh to fourth in a single move. Pollo Loco passed Superball simultaneously, and would get past Crazy Cat's Eye and Quicksilver just mere moments later. With three-quarters of the way completed, things became more hectic, as Reflektor re-passed Cool Moody for second and Crazy Cat's Eye re-passed Quicksilver for fifth. Pollo Loco lost ground, falling behind Crazy Cat's Eye, Quicksilver and Superball in quick succession, only managing to re-pass Superball. Quicksilver, Pollo Loco and Superball started to fade quickly down the final long straight as they came under fire from the closing mid-pack headed by Ghost Plasma, Blizzard Blaster and Comet. Meanwhile, Cool Moody and Crazy Cat's Eye quietly advanced into second and third respectively at the expense of Reflektor, who also faded afterwards. Clear of the hectic madness, an almost forgotten Red Number 3 rolled across the line to take his fifth career win. But the drama wasn't over yet. An aggressive block from Ghost Plasma resulted in a pile-up amongst the leading pack, with Reflektor, Quicksilver and Phoenix all getting stuck on the same piece of the course. Black Knight was also later collected. Meanwhile, Cool Moody kept his cool to take second place albeit 8.07 seconds behind the runaway winner. Crazy Cat's Eye finished third, Ghost Plasma fourth and Dragon's Egg fifth after only showing up towards the very end. Pollo Loco and Superball faded to sixth and eighth respectively, split by Blizzard Blaster finishing seventh. Summer Sky and Comet completed the top ten positions. After his early antics and running in the top ten for about a half of the race, El Capitan could only manage thirteenth. Ghost Marble dislodged Phoenix, Reflektor and Black Knight, but Ghost Plasma had already done them in and they finished as the last three running marbles and would add no points to their tallies. Quicksilver came of worst as he couldn't get going again and was the event's sole DNF. Classification * Note: ** P1–P10 is on the front row ** P11–P20 is on the second row Championship standings after the race Category:Sand Marble Rally Category:Marble Rally 2019